In-Between Worlds

I haven't written in a while. I've been consumed with work (I teach communication at TSU and Vol. State), band stuff (we recorded a full-length album this fall and did a little tour), and trying to get my life coach business off the ground and develop other parts of the business (public speaking, teaching workshops and writing a book). I also developed baby fever. Ha, I like how that sounds like some kind of disease. Well, until a year ago, that's the way I looked at having children - something undesirable that eats all your free time and money and prevents you from doing what you want. A year ago, I realized those fears were just that, fears and that experiencing motherhood and having a child with the man I love was something I wanted. For a couple months recently, I became obsessed for some reason and I spent all of my free time looking at baby clothes, things to build a nursery, what to expect books, non-toxic cleaners and lotions, pre-natal vitamins, etc... But for some reason, it just didn't feel right. Something wasn't jiving. It was like my ego and spirit were fighting each other and something was telling me it wasn't quite the right time. Thankfully, I went to a wonderful women's spiritual retreat that taught us the medicine wheel (a native american spiritual tool). At this retreat I got clarity from my guides as well as from some wise, older spiritual women, that it indeed was not the right time because my band is about to release our first full-length album and actually have a very good chance that we will get help from someone in the music business/industry (like a record label, &/or manager, &/or booking agent). My and Dave's dream of touring a lot and making decent money (at least part-time money) so we can afford to take off for a month and tour is about to come to fruition after all these years of busting our butts and sacrificing to try to make this band work. This is not the time to start a family. Not to say that I don't intend on having a child and continuing to tour with my band, but we'll have to be a little bit further along so that we've got steady, lucrative tours and are able to afford buying an RV and hiring a nanny to come on the road with us. I wouldn't want to tour in a minivan with a baby (nor would our bandmates I'm sure! ;)

So, anyway, this is what has been going on in my world. 

I (with Dave's encouragement) decided to only teach 3 classes next semester so I can have more time to devote to building my business, and also, hopefully start touring with the band. I also decided that none of those classes would be public speaking. I can't tell you how happy that makes me to not have to teach public speaking anymore! I'll be teaching fundamentals of communication. The reason I don't like teaching public speaking is because since it's a required gen. ed. class, no one wants to be there and everyone is petrified and/or hates having to speak in front of people so they have bad attitudes and at TSU, it seems only freshmen take it, so I've got immature, hung-over, bad study skilled people to deal with too. Most of them are still teenagers (18/19). It's a shame that towards the end of the semester, I've got them all trained and they've finally chilled out and have better attitudes. I like them now and the semester is almost over. Many of them recently told me that they told their friends to take me for public speaking next semester but were upset when they saw that I'm not listed as a teacher for that in the spring. That made me feel good. But not good enough to teach it again!

In-Between Worlds

My struggle lately has been that I feel in-between worlds and don't feel I belong in any one. I feel like I have many feet in many different worlds but am not fully immersed in any of them. It's hard being in limbo, waiting for something(s) you've been working on to come to fruition. I want a lot of things but don't have any of them at the moment. I've been working hard on my band and building my life coaching business but none of them have gotten to the successful part yet. 

The other thing I've been feeling an empty-ness for is a best friend. I'm the type of person who needs at least one best girl friend who knows all of me and who I'm comfortable being completely myself with and who I have a lot in common with, who is also interested in spiritual development, and is interested and available to do the things that I like to do and hang out. I have a ton of friends but most of them are more like acquaintences. Because I've been so busy with my business and the band and working my day job to pay the bills, I haven't had much time to hang out with or really get to know anyone.

It's interesting that the last few single people I've interviewed for my book are struggling with the almost the same thing - too busy with their careers to devote time to finding and developing a romantic relationship. This seems like too much of a coincidence to be just a coincidence. I'm sure the universe has something in mind for me around this. I suppose if I want to help single people find Mr. or Mrs. "right", I need to learn a similar lesson myself.

I Got My First Article Published in a Magazine!

Keep your eye out for the next issue of Be Real magazine. I wrote about the same thing I did a workshop on last month - Dealing With Difficult People (esp. family members during the holidays).

Go With The Flow and Surrender Control

I've had a couple spiritual/energetic shifts recently.  My divine guides have been telling me to go with the flow and I get images and feel a desire to float on a raft on the water. It felt great to go tubing on the ocoee river a couple weeks ago. I recognized the metaphorical lesson from that experience while I was floating down the river and it started raining and the current was swift and we had to avoid downed trees on the banks. I need to not stress when I seem to not be going in the direction I want in life. I need to simply follow my divine guidance and do a little, easy paddling towards the direction I'm being guided to go and the rest will take care of itself. I have to just go with the flow more.

Part of this lesson I realize is getting over my fear of surrender. My ego wants to protect me from harm, but when I have a connection with my higher self and the universe, my divine guidance will support me and protect me from harm. I find myself needing to remind myself that "the universe has my back". I have to surrender control.

When my life feels scary or stressful or I'm feeling stuck or antsy, I know that when I use my head vs. my heart (my ego vs. my spirit) to analyze the situation and try to figure out what I need to do, I get stressed. It does not help me at all - it just makes me feel crappy (stressed, sad, depressed, miserable....).  I am not going to get great, divine advice and guidance when I'm stressed or fearful. The ego is blocking my connection to the universe/my higher self/my intuition.

It's VERY hard when it logically seems like things aren't looking good or aren't going our way. But, we have to remember, our logic is so limited compared to what's really possible. One of the laws of the universe that I've learned and found to be true is that everything is limitless and possible. Happiness, peace, love, prosperity, abundance are all limited only by our beliefs (our logic). Based on what we "know to be true", based on what we've experienced and/or seen happen for other people, is NOT all that is possible. We have the capability to do things no one has ever done before, go places no one has ever gone before and follow a path, so unique, no one has ever gone on that path before.

We HAVE to surrender to our higher self's plan for us (which we may not be conscious of) because it only has our best interest in mind and will take us to places/levels we can't imagine with our limited beliefs/logic. Besides, that's the path we're going to follow anyway, so no sense fighting it along the way.

It's funny when I find things becoming more difficult than they should be, I have to stop myself and think, ok, obviously, I'm trying to go down a path that I'm not meant to be going down. How do I know this? Because when I just go with the flow, everything is so much easier!

I find it interesting that one of the common beliefs of our society is that success requires hard work. I don't believe that's true.

The only thing that's hard work is personal transformation/soul searching work. Once we've worked on ourselves and released the emotional/mental blocks and fear that prevent us from connecting with our higher selves, finding our life purpose, and then going with the flow, it is not hard work. It's not hard work to follow our life purpose. I'm not saying it doesn't require work (obviously you can't sit on your ass and expect things to come to you) but the work is something I find fulfilling and have a desire to do. I don't find it "hard".

I know some people struggle with taking action on their desires. This is because there is some kind of personal block you need to work through. I don't find it hard to take action towards my life purpose.

When I am taking action toward my life purpose, things FLOW! Doors open for me, people come into my life who want to help me. It's amazing! As long as I continue to live from my heart/love, things flow.

Incidentally, with the help of an intuitive coach, I discovered that my difficulty in letting go of control and surrendering to what is unfolding in my life, comes from a past life(s). I have felt a connection with the vikings and have seen images and others have seen images of me on a viking ship. I was told I was a viking ship captain and my spirit held onto the feeling of guilt and loss of control because the ship sank and I couldn't do anything about it even though I was in charge. I had a major release when I let go of this past (and current) life feeling of guilt and unhappiness for not having control.

This coincided with my guidance and images to float and go with the flow.

I surrender my need to control everything that happens in my life. I am going with the flow.

I'm not saying I don't still have the power to create/manifest the life of my dreams - my life purpose, but I can't do that if I'm living in ego (guilt, fear, control are all ego-related emotions). I have to trust that when I have a desire, I can manifest it in my life IF I follow my higher self/divine guidance and trust that whatever means to the end it guides me on, it will no doubt, produce the end result I desire - and usually a better end than I could even imagine.

Your Divine GPS

You'd think that my life would be more relaxed over the summer since I'm only teaching 2 classes (at one time), but my impatience and need to have my lofty goals accomplished "yesterday" have caused me to be way busier than I like and caused much stress once again. That's why I haven't written in over a month. But, I'm taking a group coaching class to help me develop my life coach business and attract more clients and prosperity (www.energyempowermentcoach.com). And, at Vicki's suggestion, I wrote out my "mess to success" story. I thought I'd share it here...

My Mess to Success Story

When I was a teenager and young adult, I had low self esteem and wanted to fit in but felt I didn’t. I did everything to please my parents and try to be who I thought I should be and do what I thought I should do according to family, friends and society. I went to college and when I didn’t know what I wanted to do after that, I went on to grad school so I could get a “prestigious”, high-paying job. The whole time, I sang, played and wrote songs in a band just for fun. Even though I thought that was what I really wanted to pursue, I listened to my well-intentioned parents, friends, society who said I should have a back-up plan and a good day job because it was unlikely I would “make it” as a singer/musician.

Then the universe started “telling” me I needed to follow my calling and that I wasn’t on the right path. For me, the universe tells me this by giving me stress, anxiety and eventually depression if I don’t listen.

As I read in Mona Lisa Schultz’s book, Awakening Intuition, the universe will tell you you’re on the wrong path gently at first. Then, if you don’t listen and heed its advice, it will give you a stronger message. If you still don’t listen, it will wack you upside the head with a 2x4 until you can physically/mentally no longer go down your wrong path and continue living an inauthentic life.

I was on anti-depressants for 5 years before I thought, there must be a better way. Life can’t possibly be this difficult & stressful continuously. I felt an internal conflict between what I was doing, who I thought I should be and was trying to be and who my true self wanted me to be. It took the death of my grandmas (w/in 3 mos of each other) to get in touch with my spirit with the help of a spiritual advisor (a Jesuit priest student). Then, as I worked at trying to communicate with and understand the advice of my spirit for a year, one day I saw an ad for a free meditation class in the waiting room of my allergist’s office. I signed up and the rest is history. I transferred to a different university to finish my masters degree in a program that was better suited to my interests. The more clairity I got as I followed my right path, the universe opened doors and gave me new ideas for my path I hadn’t previously considered. More opportunities opened up and I started manifesting things towards my dreams and goals. The grant funding of my 4-year job ended. The unemployment benefits and an independent consulting job that “miraculously” popped up allowed me to move to a different city and seek employment in a job that I really enjoyed. Things have been flowing since.

This is how life should be on average – easy. When you’re on the right path and are in touch with your true self, the universe rolls out the carpet for you. Even if the carpet is not yet ahead of you, if you take the step, it will roll out. If everything seems to be a struggle and it continues for a long time, you know you’re not on the right path.

The universe/your spirit is a GPS for your life. Don’t listen to others advice, because, while well-meaning, they don’t know your spirit’s calling. 

This reminds me of an ancient saying, Everyone is moving along their own paths that all lead up to the top of the mountain eventually. The ones who are not on the right path are those who are concerned with where everyone else is going and go around the mountain telling everyone else they’re on the wrong path. Another fun example…It’s like in the movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, where they’re driving on the wrong side of the highway and a couple driving next to them tries to yell to them “You’re going the wrong way!” and Steve Martin says, “We’re going the wrong way?! How do they know where we’re going?”. The only one who knows where you’re meant to go is the universe/your spirit. Listen to your divine GPS.

Life is so much more peaceful now that I’m following my divine guidance and am on my right path in life. I just go with the flow and trust the universe has my back. Don’t get me wrong, I have my ups and downs just like everyone. I am human, afterall. But whenever I feel stress and/or fear creeping in, I just remind myself that the universe has my back. Even though I have yet to achieve my lofty dreams, I finally feel like I “get it” and know I’m on my way to great things and I enjoy the small great things every day. The other day, my Google maps GPS told me “you have arrived”. I thought, yes, you’re right, I have arrived in more than one way. I know my authentic self and feel free/confident to be myself and follow my dreams.

Just Go With The Flow

It has been over a month since I've last posted but it feels like a lot longer. I should have known better than to think that my month off in May, in between the spring school semester and summer school, would be filled with relaxation and not being as busy as I've been the past year. I guess it's just not possible for me to take it easy. How can I when I have so many great opportunities popping into my life?!

Over Memorial Day weekend, I went to an amazing retreat with a girlfriend and met some more really cool people and got to teach my workshop on law-of-attraction related theories. Since I'm still pretty new at doing these (that was my 3rd workshop), it was great to give it to kind, supportive, like-minded people.

In the week leading up to it, I was feeling a little nervous and felt I should plan a lot and organize what I wanted to teach and any activities, but my divine guides told me I don't need to spend a lot of time planning it - that it would just flow and I would know what to do and say at the right moment. And, just like when I gave my lecture at Cosmic Connection in March, that's exactly what happened! It's like automatic writing, but with speaking. After a little gathering of some handout material and a couple exercises to have the participants do, I was told I have all of the wisdom I needed for those workshops, and when I have confidence and trust in that, it all just flows.

Imagine that. It's a good reminder of how life in general can go when you just let things flow and go with the flow. It takes a lot of trust and confidence in your(higher)self though.

The benefit of being in the moment and adjusting what you say/teach for each moment, you're not just letting it flow (all of your knowledge as well as the global/universal consciousness), you're allowing your intuition to guide you in the moment based on the thoughts/feelings/desires of the workshop/class participants. Because, the best teachers (and public speakers) are tuned more into WHO they're speaking to, than WHAT they want to teach. Because, let's face it, what we think people may want to hear can be different than what each unique, individual group/audience may want/need to hear. Sorry, I can't stop being a public speaking teacher outside of my college classroom. ;0


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The Joys of Small Manifestations

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." -- Marianne Williamson  (my favorite quote of hers)

I'm always trying to manifest little things just for the fun of watching it happen and realizing my power in creating what I want in my life. We all have the power to manifest what we desire, we just have to stay tuned in to our inner genius, our higher selves (or intuition, or source, or all that is, or God, or whatever you call it). Here's an example of a small, but fun manifestation that happened to me recently. I wanted a porch swing but didn't want to pay $100 or more for one, which was the typical price I saw after doing research online. I thought about it for a week. Then, I looked on craigslist and the 2nd post was a woman in my neighborhood who was selling hers for $40. I sent her an email to see if I could come take a look. I was the first responder. I went to look at it and asked her if she would be willing to negotiate. She told me to come back later that evening after someone else was coming to look at it. 

We find ourselves faced with little decisions like these daily. I always go by what I feel. If I don't feel strongly one way or another about something, I will postpone the decision until my intuition calls/leads me.  To find out how to know if it's your intuition you're feeling or an ego-based emotion, read some of my past blog posts or come to one of my workshops. In the case of the porch swing, I could have just bought it on the spot and paid the reasonable $40 but I just didn't feel strongly that that was what I should do. Maybe this wasn't the ideal porch swing for me. So I waited to hear from the seller later that evening to know if the other person had bought it. She said the other person didn't show and she just wanted to get rid of it so she said it was mine for whatever I wanted to give her for it! 

When you pay attention to the small, quickly-attainable things you're able to manifest, it gives you inspiration and motivation to continue trying to manifest the bigger dreams. We all have the power to manifest the big stuff too, it just takes diligent focus every single day to imagine and think about exactly what it is you desire.

My life coaching/workshop website: www.coach-rox.com

Would love to hear your manifestation stories. Comment away...

Stress!

I've been experiencing a lot of stress, anxiety and fatigue this past couple months and because I'm closely connected with my spirit/higher self/inner genius (whatever you want to call it), I know it's because I didn't listen to my guidance that was telling me I should not take 6 classes this semester. I have become aware of that restless, anxiety feeling that happens when I am not following the path I'm meant to and am not listening to my inner/spiritual guidance. Teaching 6 classes, I'm too busy to devote enough time to the things that I really want to do: music and teaching/public speaking on personal/spiritual development. My spirit tried to tell me this but I didn't listen, so it's now trying to tell me by hitting me upside the head with a paddle. This is a standard way your spirit tries to talk to you (see Mona Lisa Shultz's book, Awakening Intuition).

To add to my stress, I'm being challenged with my TSU students. It's a great learning experience that will add a lot to my future career but is a stressful challenge none the less. I am now starting the process of moving out of this rut.

        - aside: the reason I haven't been able to manage my stress is I haven't been
          meditating regularly. Too busy, tired, etc... I have lots of lame excuses of why
          I haven't. It's SO crucial though!          

No negative emotion is good to experience/feel for an extended period of time. The only exception I can think of might be grief.  The kind of negative emotions such as stress and anxiety are the kind of emotions that are not good to experience/feel for an extended period of time.

I know many people say it's good to feel emotions of any kind and that we shouldn't be afraid of them or try to avoid feeling them or push them down or away. I believe this is only beneficial if you acknowledge the emotion you're feeling and try to work through it and release it. You're not meant to feel anything but love or any emotion stemming from love for extended periods of time. However, I know it's hard to work through an emotion if you're living from ego. I use energy work and spiritual exercises like meditation to release emotions. Some people get caught up in trying (ad nauseum) to analyze why they're feeling this emotion. That's not the best way for lots of people. As Deborah King says, it's not necessary to re-live certain old traumas in order to release the emotions and blocks they may be causing you.

Too many people accept feeling crappy mentally/emotionally for extended periods of time. This should not be acceptable. If you find yourself feeling very stressed or anxious (or any other negative emotion) for an extended period of time, you need to do something to change your life situation. You need to decide what you feel is too long - time is relative so only you can tap into your intuition and feel what is not good for you. For me it's longer than a month.

This is frequently the kind of thing that cause people to feel like they need a drink or smoke or other negative coping mechanism when they get home from work to reduce the stress/anxiety. I noticed this pattern in myself over the past couple months. In addition to needing a drink or smoke when I get home from school, I noticed the stress was causing me to be unusually fatigued and that led to not feeling like cooking healthy meals every night which led to me feeling even more like crap, which made me want to drink/smoke more which made me more stressed. It's a viscous cycle.

Too many people who are in a similar cycle don't recognize it or do anything about it. It can easily lead to depression. Many people go to a psychiatrist to get psychiatric drugs to get relief, thinking their must be something wrong with their minds.

Let me tell you, from experience, this does not help - it only makes things worse because the reason you were probably feeling crappy to begin with is you weren't following your intuition. You need to be honest with yourself and always be true to your unique desires/talents. You should strive for a happy or at least peaceful existence. Why would you want to settle for anything less?

As usual, I welcome your comments/experiences. :)

Law of Attraction in Action

Here's how the law of attraction works...

It's not like magic, where things appear out of nowhere because you dreamt it or put the thoughts out there. Everything is already here that we need to fulfill our dreams, we just have tunnel vision - blinders like horses toting carriages. We are thinking the solution to what we want is going to be attained from a typical means to similar ends. We compare our situation and dream/goal with others that are similar and assume there is a usual way everyone achieves this type of dream/goal. We need to be open to possibilities outside of the norm. Once we realize everything we need is already out there, we just need to see it and take advantage of it, the blinders slowly come off and we can pay attention to all that is available. There is an infinite sea of abundance. It's just not always in the ways we assume.

Here's an example:

My car has body damage from an accident I had a few years ago, and we haven't wanted to pay the large amount of money it will take to fix it. I'm tired of looking at the damaged part of the car.

I've recently decided that I am not going to listen to everyone who says you need money to become successful as a touring band or to get anything else you want for that matter. I thought I'd open my mind to other possibilities to get what I want without needing money to get it. When I put out the thought that I'd figure out a way to get my car fixed without spending more than what I could afford, the next day, I was driving down the road (the same road I drive down all the time) and noticed the auto diesel college and a thought popped into my head (the universe giving me my answer) - I should call to see if they have students do car repairs to the public for cheap. Well, I called and they said they do public repairs for body work only and you only pay for parts. That happens to be the kind of repair I need at the cost I was looking for.

I Don't Like the Term "Law of Attraction"

I've decided to put "law of attraction" in quotes from now on. It's the best word to describe this phenomenon so I shall continue to use it until a better term comes to me. But I don't like it because I feel it's a label made by people who think they discovered this profound phenomenon when it's been around for who knows how long. If you've studied psychology, you know that people pay attention to certain things based on what's on your mind and what you pay attention to is what you see, aka, your reality. Basically, we see what's on our mind. What's on our mind are beliefs we've had for so long that we don't even realize they're there but they influence (dare I say, affect) what we pay attention to on a daily basis. Therefore they influence/affect our reality. We filter what we see based on if it is in accordance with our belief system. Beliefs are just thoughts that we've thought over and over for so long they become a belief. You've probably heard the phrase, you see what you want to see, hear what you want to hear, and believe what you want to believe. This is what the law of attraction says: thoughts create reality. Doesn't seem like such a crazy, far-fetched idea now. It's just science - how our minds work- and because most of us are not at the level where we can really manipulate what we see and have what we want immediately in front of us, we don't understand it and think it's a crazy idea. Just because you can't do something doesn't mean it's not possible. Wait until more people become advanced in this field, it will no longer be just an idea from those crazy new age people.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Meditation Is The Best Medicine

Happy New Year!

Phew, the last month has been a whirlwind with end-of-semester craziness and the holidays. I'm so glad to have a month vacation before the spring semester starts. I need some down time.... to finish life coach certification with Radiant Health Institute, start building my life coach business, become a rockstar and meditate among other things.. ;)

Meditation is not just imperative to spiritual health/connection but also for mental health.

It helps to develop or improve compassion and patience for ourselves. As you know if you've tried meditating, it's very difficult to clear your mind of thoughts and the only way to stick with meditation is to not be impatient or frustrated with yourself when thoughts keep popping up in your mind. Just know it's natural and ok and don't scold yourself, just let the thought(s) go and attempt to clear your mind again. Even after meditating daily for several years, I frequently have thoughts pop up. When you do a mantra-based meditation, it doesn't matter if you have thoughts popping up anyway. You still reach a meditative state. Sometimes it's easier than others for me to reach deep meditation.

When I was in Panama City Beach for Christmas, I was able to go very deep easily. I wonder if it has something to do with the energy of the ocean?

I suffered from depression and anxiety and meditation is the one of the main things that keeps my anxiety at bay now. It's like church for the soul. If I don't meditate, I find myself feeling anxiety creeping in.

Meditation can be particularly difficult in the beginning if you haven't been alone with your thoughts/emotions before. Or, if you are uncomfortable with your thoughts/emotions. If you have done everything you can to keep some kind of "noise" in your life so you don't have to pay attention to your thoughts or emotions, you need to face them and release them. Whether it be turning the TV on when you get home from work and leaving it on all night for background noise or 'white noise' to fall asleep, or doing something to relieve your uncomfortable thoughts/emotions such as eating, shopping, or taking some drug or other substance to take you away from or numb your thoughts/emotions. It's not easy to feel unpleasant emotions, but the sooner you allow yourself to, the sooner you can release them and become more connected with the bliss that is your spirit (i.e., spirit = love).

My experience and belief is that life is a balance between ego and spirit. Most people live with their ego taking the drivers seat, and aren't very well connected with their spirit. Meditating is connecting with spirit and when you lose your connection with spirit, the ego creeps in. Ego is responsible for any emotion that's not based from love (e.g., fear, anxiety, self-doubt, depression, feelings of worthlessness, or lack of motivation for doing the things you love).

Tip: if you're feeling unmotivated, ask yourself, is it because what I'm doing is not what my spirit is calling me to do (what I'm meant to do), or do I just need to get a deeper connection with my spirit, or do I have an emotion that needs to surface and be released?

Emotions must be released. Disease is what happens when they are not and are suppressed for a long enough time (&/or the strength of the emotion is strong enough). Meditation helps with this.

Meditation is not easy. It's a discipline. I'm not one who is very disciplined in things that aren't always pleasant. However, meditation is one discipline that has so many benefits that are invaluable. I can't tell you enough how worth it it is to try it and stick with it. Your life WILL be much better because of it.

P.S., meditation will help you get clarity on choices/decisions. Ask the universe (or God or spirit, whatever you call it) a question and meditation will help you get clarity - although it might not be immediate.

I'd love to hear your thoughts/comments or experiences with meditating if you've done it.

Wisdom From Wayne Dyer

I just watched the movie, The Shift with Wayne Dyer that Hay House recently put out. Wayne had a couple pieces of advice. One of which I don't know that I agree with (the first).

1. Detach from the outcome

2. If your purpose is to serve others, the universe (God, or whatever you call it) will provide - serve you


The first one seems contrary to the law of attraction, which is to envision in as much detail as possible, the exact outcome you want - the goal/desire you wish to manifest and focus on that. You first have to think about what it is you really desire and take steps toward achieving it. I believe that once you take steps toward what you want, you shouldn't worry about the details and just trust that if you keep following what you love, what you're drawn to, the universe will put you on the right path to the end goal. But, I believe you have to keep the end goal in mind and imagining it as you go along.

But who am I to say? I have yet to achieve any of my desires yet (rockstardom, best-selling author, motivational speaker touring the globe). And Wayne has achieved his desires, so maybe he knows something I don't. I have a feeling he might mean you should not try to control HOW you're going to get the outcome because that makes sense to me. But not focusing on the outcome at all? hmmmm

#2 is true because I've experienced it time and time again in my own life. Probably because I feel so good helping others and as I always say, feeling is the language of your spirit and when you're aligned with your spirit, you're aligned with all that is. And the world is at your fingertips, literally.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on any of this.

Out With The Old...

No more.

When you become too busy to do everything you want, you have to give up some things. I just did my last radio show at WVCP Sunday. It was almost a year and a half run. It was a very cool experience and gave me (and dave who liked to be my co-host a lot) great experience being on air. We had a great interview with Hector at WLUW the other month when we were in Chicago on tour. Plus, it's just a fun, unique experience. You get to play what you want and speak your mind to dozens (ha, it's actually thousands) of people. Where else but a small town community college radio station do you get callers calling in from the county jail or someone who is drunk putting up their christmas tree and just got home from working at walmart where she hates her trainer asking for a song that is gibberish? Where else can you play your friends' bands (and yours of course ;) music and introduce people to a new style of music they've probably never heard before (one caller called in and when I told him I wouldn't play the pop punk song he requested he said, well, I don't know any of this "hipster music"). Where else can you advertise the indie music community's shows and new releases? WVCP, that's where.

I was just looking at my DJ playlist in itunes and it defines my favorite bands/songs from the last year (and beyond). I like having sountracks to my life and that period will be remembered by that music.

 Well, it was a fun run and I felt I had to pay homage to that unique experience I just had so when I'm 80 and have had a million cool unique experiences, I won't forget this one.

Now, on to exciting things with the band and my life coaching & public speaking career. Things are manifesting like crazy.

I plan on still having a talk radio show and will likely do a 1/2 hr weekly show on blog talk radio. I might do a podcast too.

I'll keep the same radio show page on facebook for my future internet radio show, so like my page and I'll keep you updated. Megan Rox's Indie Rox Show

New World

Interesting that I was born into this world from the light, coming into this world out of a dark tunnel, not knowing anything about this strange world.

Now I’m feeling the calling to be one with the light again, but this time, not having to leave the earth and this amazing body and life to do so.

Like at birth, I now feel like I’m entering the tunnel to another world that is unlike this one because it seems this one is just an illusion.

Like Plato’s cave, the shadows on the wall are real to us. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality.

What are we prisoners of? The bliss that is being one with the light, with all that is. What separates us from being one with the light? The ego.

My glimpse of this new world shows some amazing things. We co-create our reality, so when we seek someone or something to help us achieve our desire, the person(s) we get have also been asking for someone to help them, so we are mutually helping each other. It’s a beautiful thing. Since it’s just an illusion, our lives, we can make it anything our heart and spirit desires. I think this must be what a world would be like if we were one with the light and yet still creating an individual world  - maybe it’s possible because this world is not actually outside of or separate from the light, maybe our minds allow us to still be one with light and imagine a separate world. What if it’s all in our minds like dreams. While we’re dreaming we aren’t aware it’s a dream. Only after we “wake up” do we realize it’s a dream. What if the next evolution will be people “waking up” and realizing that this world, this life, is just an imagined dream. The freedom and liberty that allows us is infinite – anything we can imagine can be possible. Just like night-time dreams aren’t always realistic or involve something that could actually happen. Anything is possible in our dreams. If our life WAS a dream, anything could be possible. They’re not any less real than this dream we call life. Create whatever you feel inspired to create. There are no rules. Don’t follow your dreams, live them.

I’m always after the light. When I see and feel the light from on the stage I feel one with spirit. I don’t notice the shadows of this life and am just basking in the warmth and bliss. Singing and performing is an amazing spiritual experience. 

Competition: healthy or not?

The ego is not beneficial to you and your happiness/success. As I've said before, emotions that come from the ego are anything that's not love or stemming from love (like compassion, forgiveness...). Competition is one ego-based emotion I'd like to talk about today.

As with any emotion that's from the ego, if you allow yourself to continue feeling them, you are blocking yourself from being connected with your higher self/God/the universal life force/all that is and that's what will bring you guidance, ultimate peace, happiness and success. So, it has been my goal for a while now to not allow anything to get in the way of my connection with that and my life has constantly improved because of it. In fact, my life has been so awesome this year, every time I thought it couldn't get any better it does! You too can feel like that! (it's my mission to help others do so).

It's natural to feel ego-based emotions like competition, jealousy, judging others, etc... because our society has taught us it's ok to think/feel these things, but as you work to improve your spiritual/personal development, you pay attention to your thoughts & feelings and notice when you start to feel any ego-based emotion and can stop yourself right away and choose to feel compassion, forgiveness and love to yourself and others instead. Notice I said to yourself too. This is because we subconsciously project our own emotions/thoughts onto others, so when we are angry at someone for their behavior, we're subconsciously angry at ourselves for being the same way/thing. This goes for competitiveness too. If you judge others for being competitive, you are actually not liking that part of yourself that is competitive. When you can recognize this, and you can forgive yourself for feeling competitive sometimes, you can then forgive others for their competitiveness. Same goes for any emotion. In the path to spiritual development (and "enlightenment"), we are human and aren't perfect. We slip up sometimes (though less and less frequently and for shorter periods of time when we're really connected with our higher selves). We just need to forgive ourselves and others for not being perfect.

Competition is not good or beneficial to you in any way. If you need competition to motivate yourself to get going and do something instead of just talking about doing something, than there's something blocking you from doing what you want to do (fear). Doing something because you want to compete with or be better than someone else is putting a wedge in-between your connection with your spirit/higher self & higher power.

Those who have a close connection with spirit know that you can achieve anything your heart desires and that there is plenty of abundance to go around for everyone, AND that each person's path is so unique, you can't possibly compare your path to anyone else's. ALSO, if you realize that we're all connected anyway, there's no need to compare yourself to or compete with anyone.

I promise you, that if you follow the spiritual development path that I'm teaching (based on all of my favorite teachings of many wise teachers/speakers/authors), you will not even have the tendency to feel competition or jealousy toward anyone. You will rejoice that others are following their passions and are becoming successful at it because what the world needs is more people doing this as it makes everyone more happy and loving.

Trust me, the societal belief that there's only so much to go around is NOT TRUE. This idea has been perpetuated by people who fear there isn't enough to go around. You don't want to follow fear.

I was inspired to write about this in lieu of big government competition going on. I have successfully ignored almost all of it (including all of the arguing based on non-factual info on facebook). I don't feel good getting involved in competition and arguments, so I don't. Most of what politicians say is a lie anyway - their job is to say whatever they think their constituents want to hear so they can get re-elected and keep their job.

I don't do anything that doesn't feel good. This is my life motto, and it should be yours too. Love feels good. Fear does not. I do not let myself wallow in fear (or any fear-based emotion) and my life is much better because of it. (incidentally, I've been manifesting shit like crazy lately! I'll have to write about it in a separate post).

Follow your heart. Do It. Do It Tonight (not just the title of my song which you can listen to here)

Manifestation at It's Finest

Things have been coming to me left and right. Everything from big to small. I want to share with you some of the instances so that you can see proof that the way of living I've learned and am using to achieve ultimate happiness, love and manifest what you desire actually works!

(If you're reading this and you are one of the people I talk about, I'm SO glad I met you and THANK YOU for everything you've done to help me - even if it seemed small, you never know how much of an impact your actions will have on someone else. I couldn't have done anything without help. I get by with a little help from my friends... If we all help each other, we can move mountains!)

 I have a habit of leaving my thumb drive in the computer in my classroom when I leave or it fell out of my bag on the way to school once, so Dave suggested I get one of those thumb drives that are attached to a keychain so if I forget it in the computer, I won't get far because my car keys would be on it. I was thinking about how I needed one of those and the next day, I had the notion to go through my briefcase in my bedroom that I haven't used in a year and has been collecting dust. It so happened that a keychain thumb drive was in the pocket of that briefcase. I had forgotten I had one of those!

Another instance: I have really been thinking about how my band needs people who want to help us achieve success, whether its in a small or big way. One way in particular we needed help in was making a music video. I couldn't wait, I wanted to get something up on youtube at least for the time being. I had the urge to start playing around with iMovie on my laptop and I was having fun putting photos and video clips to some of our songs. When I was doing it for one of our songs, Airstream in Space, a girl I know popped into my head. She creates cool space cat photo art and some of her pictures would be perfect for my music "video" so I asked her if I could use a couple. She said yes and also that she had been looking for a song to make a stop-motion music video for but hadn't found anything that she thought fit until she heard Airstream in Space.

Another: I had been thinking it would be nice to be able to teach online classes at the University of Phoenix for a couple years because they probably offer many online classes which is what I'll probably have to teach exclusively when my band starts touring heavily. I actually applied for them a few years ago, with no response. The other weekend I noticed a meetup.com group I belong to (DINKS) was doing a really cool activity that I had been wanting to do (treetop adventure park) and I had not yet been to one of their meetups so I went. There, I met a nice guy who works for U of Phoenix and told me the Nashville campus is looking for more part-time teachers, including communication (my field).

I have been wanting to continue working on building my motivational speaker/teacher/life coaching career and was recently guided to meet an important person who I have a feeling will help my career (and has already offered a couple great opportunities). It was in an interesting, round-about way that it happened (aren't many of the paths and guidance from the universe this way?). (yes, I love parenthesis). I saw on a fun class-listing site that I used for my first Improve Your Life From the Inside Out class, a class a life coach was offering about the happiness myth. Well, you can imagine that caught my eye because that sounds like exactly the opposite of what I believe and teach. The class description intriegued me though and I thought, I have to meet this guy and have a discussion about this happiness stuff. So, we met for coffee and had a great conversation and he told me about a woman who just started a business doing essentially what I was just talking about wanting to start (after watching Lovetown, USA on the Oprah network)! Needless to say, I contacted her and we just met the other day. She is going to share her life coach curriculum with me and I, mine (for my Improve Your Life... Class). This will be a great help as I develop my class - perfect timing because my first class that Volunteer State Community College has agreed to let me teach through their continuing ed dept., starts next Tuesday! This woman also started editing and publishing a cool personal development magazine and said I could write an article in it if I wanted! So cool!

As if that weren't enough (yes, I have many balls I'm juggling but the universe allows me to do it all!) another thing came from my request from the universe for someone to want to help my band. The 2nd time we played in Atlanta recently, our friend who set the show up for us (who, incidentally, was running sound at our first show in ATL) and his friend mentioned maybe helping us too. The nice guy who was DJ'ing at that 2nd show liked us and asked us to play a future show he's putting together. See, you don't need a booking agent. You can get by with a little help from your friends. People you play with or who hear you who have the means to book you for a future show will do it because they like you and because they want to. Just like I want to help whoever I can whenever I can. What goes around, comes around.

Ok, you want one more? I have been teaching at Motlow State and Volunteer State community colleges the past year and a half and have been wanting to get a job at a college or university in Nashville (vs. 30-40 min. outside of town) and also because they pay a lot more that Motlow and Vol. St. I had filled out the online application and sent in my resume over a year ago but hadn't heard anything. About a month before the fall semester was to start, I got an email from the head of the communication department at TSU saying they needed some adjuncts to fill in some classes for the fall semester. Thank god I listened to my instincts earlier in the summer when I could have taken 6 classes (between Vol. St. and Motlot) but my intuition/guidance was that I should only sign up for 5 (which is actually considered full-time). I usually teach 6 classes a semester, and since I only had 5 lined up, I was able to take one at TSU. Apparently, a fellow adjunct who also teaches at Vol. St. and Motlow in the humanities dept., recommended me. Now that I have my foot in the door there, I can take the majority of classes there next semester. 

All of this has happened within the last couple months!

 It feels like I'm just riding the flow of the universe and it's taking me wherever I want to go and helping me in whatever way I need and supporting me in following whatever passionate desire I have.

 Incidentally, I started this blog a couple years ago to document my life as I tested out the law of attraction to see if it really worked. In my quest to find out, I discovered something even better - the secret to how the universe really works!

Two of the key lessons I've learned: ask for guidance (from the universe, not your friend) and LISTEN to it and be open-minded to it and don't let the ego (fear) get in the way.

 So... if you want to learn this "secret", let me know. I'm available for life coaching sessions on an individual basis and I also have a weekly radio show (for now) and will have a podcast up in the near future and will continue to teach my Improve Your Life... class around Nashville. Email me if you're interested in a coaching session or my class: meg.rox09@yahoo.com

Photo Album From Europe

Here's a photo album I made from my recent trip to Europe...

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

An Amazing Thing Happened in Europe

I just got back from my European adventure with Dave a few days ago, just in time for the new semester of school to start (lots of prep work in 2 days - phew!!!). We went to 4 cities in 12 days to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary (Amsterdam, Paris, Bellinzona, Switzerland, and Venice). It was the trip of a lifetime!

I have to write about my amazing spiritual experience that happened. I knew something big spiritually/universally was going to happen on this trip because I was called to go, specifically in August. I was telling Dave for months before (heck, even a year ago), that I felt called by the spirit world/universe to go to Paris in August this year because something big was going to happen. When I was planning the trip, I knew I wanted to go to Paris, Amsterdam (because I had never been there before), and Venice (Paris & Venice were my 2 favorite cities last time I was there when I studied abroad 14 years ago) but I didn't know what other country/city to choose. We were thinking about Germany, maybe Munich, but it just didn't feel it was the right city, so I was asking around for suggestions on other cities (that I hadn't been to) and someone I met at a party suggested Switzerland, and that sounded good. So, I looked on the Switzerland main tourism website and a picture of Bellinzona on a slideshow popped up, and I thought - I want to go THERE!!  It was a beautiful small town in the Swiss alps that had a couple castles from the 12th century. It turns out, the main reason I was called to Europe was for something in this city. I felt, when I booked it that the energy of something so old would feel amazing, but I had no idea the magnitude of what I was called to do.

So, here's what happened... In Paris, on the 3rd day we were there, we went to Mont Martre and brought a blanket and laid down on the grassy hill below the cathedral that overlooked Paris. I thought that would be a good place to meditate, so I did so for 20 min. (my usual meditation time). I felt some kind of energy or something spiritual was imparted to me. I knew later that that was the big thing I was told would happen in Paris. I felt something a lot bigger was supposed to happen in Paris before we left for the trip, so I was a little disappointed.

The next city we went to was Bellinzona, Switzerland. We ended up getting a room with a balcony that overlooked the big castle (which was a block away) and the hotel itself was backed up against one of the castle towers. That first night there, Dave & I sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the view of the castle lit up and the beautiful mountain right behind it. I got the urge to try to connect with the spirits who lived/worked at the castle a long time ago. Immediately, I felt many warriors and a strong sense of fear. I sensed that they were always fearful because their lifetime was filled with war and they needed the castle and it's walls to protect their lives. I thought what a shame that they still felt this way, especially surrounded by the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen, so I opened my heart chakra and sent them love. All of a sudden, I heard a bunch of cheering. It was like the spirits were waiting for someone to help them with this and it was a big deal. That's all I could sense. Then, the most amazing thing happened. I felt a big ripple in the time/space continuum. I don't know how to describe it but it was like someone taking a big blanket or rug and shaking it out.

This was the second time I had experienced being able to sense a dimension in the universe that's greater than/outside of/bigger than the dimension that we can see/sense here on earth. I had heard from some people, authors, and quantum physics scholars that in reality, in the universe, time is not linear like we can only see here on earth. Time is parallel. The past, present and future are actually happening at the same time on parallel layers in the time-space continuum. It helped me to see a diagram of how it might look, I think it was in the documentary, What The Bleep Do We Know, or Down The Rabbit Hole. But anyway, I sensed a major shift in the time-space continuum and that the present and future had been majorly changed because of it (for the better).

After pondering it, I think the reason I was called to go there and do that specifically in August, was because it was needed to help somehow with the big dimension shift that's supposed to happen to earth this year. I also think that location, being one of the oldest, earliest settlements of humans (the first fort was build there in 500 BC!!!) has significance. It would make sense that to help with the global shift this year, we might have to go back and change the earliest beginnings of human civilization here on earth, as well as the farthest future. I have a feeling someone (or more people?) here on earth are reaching out on the time-space continuum to affect necessary change in the future (that is actually happening at the same time). I have no idea exactly what happened there, but I sensed a magnitude of something so much bigger than myself and my world, that I've never sensed before. I think I'm still processing it energetically. As I write this, I'm overcome with emotion and gratitude.

One of the cool things that happened right after I helped shift the energy/emotion there from fear to love is, in return, the spirits gave me their power. They were warriors who had much power and they actually told me I have much power and am a natural warrior. They also told me people will listen to me. Those are the 2 things they told me, and it was what I needed to hear at this point in my life. It reaffirms to me that what I'm trying to teach, and the messages I'm trying to get out to as many people as possible - people will listen to.

You Need To Watch This Documentary - Life After Life

Everyone has to watch this documentary....

Life After Life - by Peter Shockey (a guy I know in Nashville)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7522860333909574784 (sorry, this is the only free version I've found but it has an asian language subtitles at the bottom - easy enough to disregard though)

It will be very helpful for anyone who has ever lost a loved one.

It also helps people understand what it's like to communicate with the spirit world. Because EVERYONE has gotten guidance/messages from your spirit guides (everyone has them) but many people probably think it's just their own thought. This movie shows you that's how spirits communicate with each other - it appears as a thought.

Do It Tonight - not just a catchy song title ;)......

At the beginning of summer, I thought my life was better than it had ever been and it couldn't get any better. It has continued to amaze me how knowing "the secret" to how the universe really works has paid off. I would say now, my life is even BETTER and I'm thinking it couldn't possibly get any better, but really I know it will!

I plead with people to try understanding, accepting and practicing the "secret". (sorry for all the "secret" references - I actually hate that movie but can't think of a better way to describe this phenomenon). Even though it's very difficult at times, I can't tell you how worth it it is.

So, if you're curious to know just exactly why my life is amazing to me? Well, let me tell you. ;0

I was successful at starting my life coach - based classes and will be doing more because the continuing ed department at volunteer state community college has accepted my class proposal and is offering it this fall.

I was wondering why I was getting divine guidance earlier this summer when telling the dept. head at Vol. St., what classes I wanted to take. The thought kept popping into my head that I should only take 5 classes this fall because I'd be busy with other stuff. So, I held off and now I see why. I just got an email from the dept. head at Tenessee State University asking me if I wanted to teach a class or two there this fall. I've been wanting to teach there because it's only 10 min. from home and also pays more. AND since Vol. State is going to offer my Improve Your Life From The Inside Out class, I'm glad I didn't take more than 5 from Vol. St. and Motlow St., combined. Actually now that I think about it, the universe was trying to help me because one of the 2 classes I originally was signed up to teach was bumped.

Oh, and with the band, we just finished recording our cd and it sounds amazing and we got a booking agent and have great tours scheduled. The cd cover turned out great (our friend Ryan took a photo of toys that look like us). I know once people hear it, we're going to blow up. I can just feel it. And, knowing the law of attraction and seeing proof with everything that has happened in my life in the last 4 years, I know that's the secret to manifesting something: don't just believe it, know it, feel it as if it's already happening.

Trust me, once you get the hang of practicing this, it becomes second nature and you can't imagine living life without doing it - it's amazing! It's SO worth it!

One of our new songs is about this acutally: Do It Tonight. * :)

There's more. Tomorrow I get to leave for a 12-day vacation in Europe with Dave for our 10-year anniversary.
And when we get back, we'll play our cd release show and Hard Rock Cafe show.



*probably by the time you read this, the link will be up.

How To Distinguish Between Spirit & Ego

I just finished my first class that I developed called Improve Your Life From the Inside Out. It went very well for a first class that I developed myself and the 9 students were all great. I LOVED doing it and plan to offer it again in a couple months.

I always learn from all of my students and this class was no different. One student asked a very good question that I'm sure many of you are asking yourself, so I thought I'd discuss it.

He asked, after I was talking about following your spirit's guidance, "What happens when you listen to your gut instinct and it leads you to a bad/wrong decision?"

Well, I answered this in 2 parts... First, your spirit is never wrong!  I believe this student has not yet learned to distinguish his ego from his spirit. Second, how do you know it was a bad/wrong decision? Our spirit will always lead us down the path we are meant to go down, but sometimes, we need to learn certain things to progress, and those lessons are not always learned the easy way. Following your spirit is not always easy.

Regarding the first part, the problem comes when you follow what you think is your spirit giving you guidance but it's really your ego. If it's easier to think of it this way, I'll over simplify it just to help clarify my point of view... the ego is your mind. Really, your ego is the left brain and your spiritual guidance comes through the right brain, but it might help to think of it in terms of mind - spirit.

The problem with the ego/mind is that it bases decisions on a set of rules/norms/guidelines that society and our parents/friends have told us is right. These rules/norms/guidelines about what is "rational/realistic/normal/logical" are so ingrained in us that they become our core beliefs and values and we don't even realize what they are anymore but they still subconsciously govern our decisions. When we use snap judgements, we are using these "rules". Often, it feels like our gut instinct, but is really not. This is why it's very important to take an inventory of our beliefs and values on everything. I have exercises to do this if you're interested - email me (meg.rox09@yahoo.com).

It takes time to learn how to distinguish between your spirit and your ego. It's a skill that you need to develop and practice.

Every time I do NOT follow my spirit's guidance, it ends badly. However, following your spirit's guidance is often easier said than done. What makes it more difficult is when your spirit's guidance goes against the "rules/norms" ingrained in us and our ego. For example, I was editing a paper and a thought popped into my head (this is how your spirit can guide you) that I should do a 'save as' a newer version to leave the content of the older version I was working on before I cut too much out of it. I pondered it for a second but my ego quickly dismissed it and I remember thinking, "oh, I don't need any of that old content that I'm cutting out. I don't need to do a 'save as'." Guess what happened? 5 minutes later, I was cutting a big section to paste it somewhere else in the document and forgot to paste it back in before I cut something else and the whole section was lost.

So, even those of us who can recognize when our spirit is trying to guide us, fall prey to the power of the ego to "rationalize" it away.

That's why I always say "listen to your spirit & live your life from it". It will never lead you wrong. I'm sure we've all had moments where we get inner guidance to do something but don't follow it and it ends up badly. (I'd love to hear these stories, if you want to post them in the comments):)

So, you may be thinking, that's great if you can distinguish between your spirit and your ego, but what if you can't? Well, here are some ways to help you better connect with your spirit and the closer you are to it, the more clear the guidance will be. The more often you do these things too, the more clear the guidance will be.

1. MEDITATE: This is the main way you get in touch with your spirit. It is also the most important. I'm sorry if you thought there was an easy way to do this "spiritual development stuff" but there is not. I know people who groan when I suggest meditation because everyone thinks it's so hard and that they can't possibly do it well/right or have the discipline to continue doing it. While it can be difficult (my mind chatters more than any of yours I'll bet), as with anything, it gets easier with practice. Also, I wouldn't have been able to really get into it and keep it up if it weren't for taking a class. Just like with exercise classes, it really helps when you have a teacher there pushing you to keep going even when you're frustrated and think you just can't do it. Once you're able to quiet your mind once, it gives you the encouragement/motivation to keep going. For some people (like me), taking a class is the only way to get started. There are also lots of free guided meditations and podcases online. I've recently discovered the easiest and also most powerful meditation. It's a mantra-based meditation and a teacher has to give you a personalized mantra to repeat in your mind as you meditate. I got mine from Deborah King but Deepak Chopra also has this type of meditation and the most well-known of this type is Transcendental Meditation.  I highly recommend this mantra-based type of meditation!!! All of the spiritual teachers say it's very important to meditate every day. I do it 20 min. every day and when I don't, I start to feel my ego creeping in (in the form of anxiety and/or stress). Meditation is like church for the soul.
2. Journal: Take quiet time every day to jot down your thoughts and feelings of what happened that day. The spirit often speaks to us through our writing and for many, writing is a good way to get in touch with the soul. Don't be afraid. It can be scary to uncover old emotional trauma/garbage or issues but it's necessary for spiritual development (and ultimately becoming much happier!).
3. Ask for guidance: Your spirit, as well as all of the spiritual beings around us who want to help us, need to be asked before they can help us (it's a universe rule apparently). They will answer you, but in the beginning (heck, even now for me sometimes) it takes time to get the answer. You have to be patient. The answer will come to you if you are regularly meditating and journaling. If you're not, it's just like prayer. If you pray but don't take time to be quiet and listen for the answer, what's the point?

There are other ways to be closer to your spirit - to be able to live/make decisions through spirit instead of ego - but these are 3 important, major ones to start with.

OK, I Get The Message!

I just couldn't believe how clear and obvious (and persistent!) the universe is in giving me the message that the answer to my financial worries is to tithe - so I had to write it in this blog. It's really cool when you see such a clear message from the divine!

I just finished band practice and turned on the TV and what was on was the 700 Club, a christian TV show and they were talking about tithing and telling stories about people who got out of financial worry by tithing. How ironic is that?! I never watch christian shows (I'm not a christian) and certainly don't watch what Dave & I like to jokingly call the "god" channels! This show was on the last network I last watched - ABC Family.

I just thought that was such a cool instance of the universe clearly answering me and giving me a message that I had to tell you.

I have started tithing by donating money - 2/3rds of the 10% of my income so far - to worthy causes. I haven't seen any results yet but Dave has already!

I convinced Dave, who is a little more conservative (and pessimistic when it comes to faith) than I am, to believe there might be something to this tithing, and he recently gave it a shot. He is making a guitar for his friend who said he loves his guitars and wishes he could have him build one, who also just lost his eye in a freak accident and doesn't have health insurance. He's not just making the guitar and giving it to him, he's using it to start a fund for his friend and posted it on his website & facebook encouraging others to donate to this fund to help his friend pay for his medical bills (and cheer him up a little). He has already had someone contact him after seeing this donation project, wanting him to build him a custom guitar! He also just happened to get a bonus at work!

I'm sure I'll have more great things we'll get from tithing that I'll tell you about in future blog posts.

I love hearing others stories too, so please post your tithing story in the comments below. :)